Methods and systems for verifying media guidance data

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are disclosed herein for verifying media guidance data. Specifically, a media guidance application may facilitate the extraction and transmission of an excerpt of a media asset that is associated with media guidance data such that the content of the excerpt may be compared to content known to be associated with the media guidance data.

BACKGROUND

In conventional systems, users often use an interactive guide to accessmedia content (e.g., broadcast television, movies, on-demand content,etc.). For example, the interactive guide may allow users to seeavailable titles and/or the scheduled availability of media content.Invariably, the interactive guide may feature data that is out-of-dateor otherwise incorrect. However, providers of media guidance data usedto populate the interactive guide may have few means to detect andverify the data appearing in an interactive guide.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, methods and systems are disclosed herein for verifyingmedia guidance data. Specifically, a media guidance application mayfacilitate the extraction and transmission of an excerpt of a mediaasset that is associated with media guidance data such that the contentof the excerpt may be compared to content known to be associated withthe media guidance data. For example, an interactive guide may list aparticular television program as currently appearing to a user. Toverify that the media asset actually shown to the user is the particulartelevision program, the media guidance application may extract ascreenshot of the media asset that is currently appearing to a user. Themedia guidance application may then determine the content (e.g., names,characters, etc.) in the screenshot and compare the content to content(e.g., names, characters, etc.) known to be associated with theparticular television program. Upon determining that the content in thescreenshot does not correspond to the content known to be associatedwith the particular television program, the media guidance applicationmay cause alternative media guidance data to appear in the interactiveguide.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may transmit, from afirst device (e.g., a server), a media asset (e.g., a televisionprogram) for display on a second device (e.g., a set-top box, tabletcomputer, etc.). For example, a media guidance data source or theprovider of an interactive guide may transmit one or more televisionprograms, movies, etc. The media guidance application may also transmit,from the first device, a media guidance datum for display on the seconddevice. For example, the media guidance data source or the provider ofan interactive guide may transmit a title, summary, schedulinginformation, etc., about the media asset.

The media guidance application may also receive an indication that themedia guidance datum generated for display on the second device does notcorrespond to the media asset generated for display on the seconddevice. For example, the media guidance application may receive a userinput (e.g., corresponding to the selection of an icon appearing on thefirst or second device) requesting that the media guidance applicationverify the media guidance datum or a user input that otherwise reports aproblem. In another example, the media guidance application may receiveindications continuously or periodically as part of normal housekeepingprocedures.

In response to receiving the indication, the media guidance applicationmay determine, at the first device, whether a portion of data (e.g.,audio and/or video data for the media asset) extracted from the mediaasset generated for display on the second device corresponds to mediacontent corresponding to the media guidance datum generated for displayon the second device. For example, in response to the indication, themedia guidance application may request or extract a portion (e.g., aframe, a scene, etc.) of the media asset generated for display on thescreen device.

The media guidance application may then compare the portion of dataextracted from the media asset generated for display on the seconddevice to other content to determine whether the portion corresponds tothe media content corresponding to the media guidance datum generatedfor display on the second device. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine whether the portion corresponds to the mediacontent by cross-referencing the portion (e.g., a scene of the mediaasset generated for display on the second device) with a database ofportions (e.g., scenes) of the media content to determine whether theportion matches one of the portions. In another example, the mediaguidance application may determine whether the portion corresponds tothe media content by identifying an object (e.g., a name, character,vehicle, etc.) in the portion and comparing the object to objectscorresponding to the media content.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may transmit anupdated media guidance datum for display on the second device inresponse to determining that the portion does not correspond to themedia content. For example, in response to determining that the portiondoes not correspond to the media content corresponding to the mediaguidance datum generated for display on the second device, the mediaguidance application may=transmit new media guidance data that doescorrespond to the portion.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may request anadditional portion of data extracted from the media asset generated fordisplay on the second device in response to determining that the portiondoes not correspond to the media content. For example, in response todetermining that the portion does not correspond to the media contentcorresponding to the media guidance datum generated for display on thesecond device, the media guidance application may extract additionalportions and determine whether or not those portions correspond to themedia content corresponding to the media guidance datum generated fordisplay on the second device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may transmit averification message in response to determining that the portion doescorrespond to the media content. For example, in response to determiningthat the portion does correspond to the media content corresponding tothe media guidance datum generated for display on the second device, themedia guidance application may notify the user that the media guidancedatum is correct.

It should be noted that the systems and/or methods described above maybe applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods and/orapparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 shows an illustrative example of a display screen generated by amedia guidance application that features an on-screen icon for verifyingmedia guidance data in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows another illustrative example of a display screen generatedby a media guidance application that features an on-screen icon forverifying media guidance data in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining whether ornot a portion of data extracted from a media asset corresponds to aparticular media asset in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure; and

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining whether ornot to transmit a verification in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Methods and systems are disclosed herein for verifying media guidancedata. Specifically, a media guidance application may facilitate theextraction and transmission of an excerpt of a media asset that isassociated with media guidance data such that the content of the excerptmay be compared to content known to be associated with the mediaguidance data.

As referred to herein, a “media guidance application” is an applicationthat provides media guidance data to a user through an interface. Forexample, a media guidance application may allow users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. The media guidance application and/or any instructions forperforming any of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on anycomputer readable medium. Computer readable media include any mediacapable of storing data. The computer readable media may be transitory,including, but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagneticsignals, or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to,volatile and non-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as ahard disk, floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, registermemory, processor caches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

Media guidance applications may take various forms depending on thecontent for which they provide guidance. One typical type of mediaguidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Media guidance applications may generategraphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigate among,locate and select content.

The media guidance application discussed herein may facilitate theextraction and transmission of an excerpt of a media asset. As referredto herein, the terms “media asset” and “content” should be understood tomean an electronically consumable user asset, such as televisionprogramming, as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as invideo-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streamingcontent, downloadable content, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio,content information, pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists,websites, articles, books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chatsessions, social media, applications, games, and/or any other media ormultimedia and/or combination of the same. Guidance applications alsoallow users to navigate among and locate content. As referred to herein,the term “multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizesat least two different content forms described above, for example, text,audio, images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may berecorded, played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, butcan also be part of a live performance.

For example, the media guidance application may extract a portion of themedia asset. As referred to herein, a “portion” is any segment or otherportioning of a media asset. For example, a portion may correspond toany scene, chapter, clip, frame, etc. of a media asset. In someembodiments, the portion may correspond to a segment of the media assetthat is viewable and/or otherwise presented to a user during playback ofa media asset. For example, a portion of the media asset that isviewable and/or otherwise presented to the user during playback mayinclude audio or video data of the media asset. This may be contrastedwith data that is not viewable and/or otherwise presented to the userduring playback of the media asset such as metadata or media guidancedata associated with the media asset.

For example, a portion of the media asset that is viewable and/orotherwise presented to the user during playback may include audio orvideo data of the media asset that is generated for presentation on auser device. As referred to herein, the phrase “user equipment device,”“user equipment,” “user device,” “electronic device,” “electronicequipment,” “media equipment device,” or “media device” should beunderstood to mean any device for accessing the content described above,such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-top box, an integrated receiverdecoder (IRD) for handling satellite television, a digital storagedevice, a digital media receiver (DMR), a digital media adapter (DMA), astreaming media device, a DVD player, a DVD recorder, a connected DVD, alocal media server, a BLU-RAY player, a BLU-RAY recorder, a personalcomputer (PC), a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a WebTV box, apersonal computer television (PC/TV), a PC media server, a PC mediacenter, a hand-held computer, a stationary telephone, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a portable video player, a portablemusic player, a portable gaming machine, a smart phone, or any othertelevision equipment, computing equipment, or wireless device, and/orcombination of the same. In some embodiments, the user equipment devicemay have a front facing screen and a rear facing screen, multiple frontscreens, or multiple angled screens. In some embodiments, the userequipment device may have a front facing camera and/or a rear facingcamera. On these user equipment devices, users may be able to navigateamong and locate the same content available through a television.Consequently, media guidance may be available on these devices, as well.The guidance provided may be for content available only through atelevision, for content available only through one or more of othertypes of user equipment devices, or for content available both through atelevision and one or more of the other types of user equipment devices.The media guidance applications may be provided as on-line applications(i.e., provided on a web-site), or as stand-alone applications orclients on user equipment devices. Various devices and platforms thatmay implement media guidance applications are described in more detailbelow.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may compare aportion of the media asset, as transmitted by a provider of the mediaasset, to media guidance data, also as transmitted by a provider of themedia asset. For example, a media guidance data source or the providerof an interactive guide may transmit, from a remote server, one or moretelevision programs, movies, etc., for display on a user device. Themedia guidance application may also transmit, from the remote server, amedia guidance datum for display on the user device.

As referred to herein, the phrase “media guidance data” or “guidancedata” should be understood to mean any data related to content or dataused in operating the guidance application. For example, the guidancedata may include program information, guidance application settings,user preferences, user profile information, media listings,media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcast channels,titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parental controlratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information, actorinformation, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos, etc.),media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D, etc.),advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips, etc.),on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type of guidancedata that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locate desiredcontent selections.

For example, the media guidance data source or the provider of aninteractive guide may transmit information about a media asset such thatthe user may identify and determine whether or not he or she wishes toconsume the media asset. In some cases, the media guidance data sourceof the provider of the interactive guide may transmit out-of-date orotherwise incorrect information (e.g., information that does notcorrectly identify and/or describe a media asset to which it is supposedto correspond). For example, a media guidance application may present amedia guidance datum that identifies a first television show appearingat 7 PM. However, when the user selects the first television show, themedia asset presented may not be the first television show, but insteadmay be a second television show. In such cases, the media asset datummay not correspond to the media asset.

Media guidance data may become out-of-date or otherwise incorrect in avariety of ways. For example, media assets presented before a mediaasset in question may have overrun their scheduled broadcast times. Insuch cases, the media asset in question may no longer correspond to themedia guidance datum (e.g., listing a scheduled broadcast time).Accordingly, the media guidance application may facilitate thetransmission of data between a device (e.g., a set-top box) used togenerate for display the media asset and media guidance datum and adevice that transmitted, provided, and/or is capable of correcting(e.g., a head-end server) the media guidance datum.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may periodically orcontinuously verify media guidance data. For example, the media guidanceapplication may continually compare transmitted media assets totransmitted media guidance data to determine that the media asset thatis transmitted actually corresponds to the media guidance datum that wastransmitted. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayperform this verification process without any human interaction.Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application may querythe user to determine whether or not to verify the media guidance dataand/or provide an option (e.g., via selection of an on-screen icon) toverify media guidance data.

To verify that a media guidance datum associated with a media assetactually corresponds to the media asset, the media guidance applicationmay facilitate the extraction and transmission of an excerpt of a mediaasset that is associated with media guidance data such that the contentof the excerpt may be compared to content known to be associated withthe media guidance data. For example, an interactive guide may list aparticular television program as currently appearing on a televisionchannel. To verify that the media asset actually shown to the user isthe particular television program, the media guidance application mayextract copy a portion of the media asset as is currently appearingand/or being transmitted on the television channel. For example, themedia guidance application may perform a print screen operation, recordone or more frames of the media asset, or otherwise capture a portion ofthe media asset. The media guidance application may then compare thecaptured portion of data to data that is known to be associated with thelisted television program.

For example, the media guidance application may determine an object inthe captured portion of the media asset. As referred to herein, an“object” is any human consumable attribute presented to a user duringplayback of the media asset. For example, an object may refer to acharacter, vehicle, location, and/or any other item or entity thatappears in the media asset. In another example, an object may representa song, tone, spoken word, or other audio output corresponding to themedia asset. In yet another example, an object may represent a worddisplayed onscreen in a media asset, a word in a subtitle, a word inclosed captioning information, etc.

To identify an object in a media asset, the media guidance applicationmay incorporate and/or have access to a content recognition modulecapable of using object recognition techniques such as edge detection,pattern recognition, including, but not limited to, self-learningsystems (e.g., neural networks), optical character recognition, on-linecharacter recognition (including, but not limited to, dynamic characterrecognition, real-time character recognition, intelligent characterrecognition), and/or any other suitable technique to monitor theappearance (or lack thereof) of one or more users and/or user devices.For example, the media application may receive data in the form of avideo (e.g., a television program). The video may include a series offrames. For one or more of the frames of the video, the mediaapplication may use a content recognition module or algorithm to detectone or more objects in the one or more frames.

In some embodiments, the content recognition module or algorithm mayalso include speech recognition techniques, including but not limited toHidden Markov Models, dynamic time warping, and/or neural networks (asdescribed above) to translate spoken words, sounds, or other audio datainto text. For example, the content recognition module may listen forsounds that constitute an object or sounds that indicate an object isappearing in a media asset (e.g., a spoken word naming a character inthe media asset).

In addition, the media application may use multiple types of opticalcharacter recognition and/or fuzzy logic, for example, when processingkeyword(s) retrieved from data (e.g., textual data, translated audiodata, user inputs, etc.). For example, the media guidance applicationmay analyze text appearing in the media asset, subtitles, and/or closedcaptioning information. The media guidance application may further use asearch function and/or fuzzy logic. For example, using fuzzy logic, themedia application (e.g., via a content recognition module or algorithmincorporated into, or accessible by, the media application) maydetermine two fields and/or values to be identical even though thesubstance of the data or value (e.g., two different spellings of apotential destination) is not identical.

Upon determining that a particular object is included in a media asset,the media guidance application may determine whether or not theparticular object is associated with a media asset that corresponds tothe transmitted media guidance datum. For example, in response todetermining that a movie includes a character, the media guidanceapplication may determine whether or not that character corresponds to amedia asset associated with the transmitted media guidance datum.

For example, the media guidance application may determine whether aportion of data extracted from the media asset actually generated fordisplay on a user device corresponds to the media content associatedwith a media asset corresponding to the media guidance data. To do so,the media guidance application may cross-reference a portion (e.g., ascene of the media asset generated for display on the second device) oran object (e.g., a character appearing in the portion) with a databaseof portions (or objects) of the media content to determine whether theportion (or object) matches one of the portions (or objects).

In some embodiments, data regarding the content of a media asset (e.g.,chrominance, luma, or other image values of pixels in a frame of a mediaasset) may be transmitted with a media asset (e.g., as metadata) andreceived by the media guidance application implemented on a userequipment device. In some embodiments, the data may be generated by amedia guidance application, either on local or remote equipment, byprocessing the pixels of each frame of the media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may include content recognition modules asdiscussed above such that the media guidance application may receive aninput of an image (e.g., a frame of a media asset) and output a set ofcharacteristics related to the image. The media guidance application mayuse any standard image and/or signal processing techniques.

In some embodiments, image processing may include one or more samplingsat a time. As used herein, a “sampling” may include one or more pixelsor frames. For example, a sampling may include a group of pixels (e.g.,that define a distinct region of the frame or an object on the frame) ora group of frames (e.g., that define a predetermined number of frames ora particular scene of a media asset). It should be noted that as used inthe context of image processing throughout this disclosure systems andmethods described in relation to samples of pixels may also be appliedto, for example, single-color regions (e.g., subpixels) or any otherinput used by an image sensor to convert an optical image into anelectronic signal or vice versa. Furthermore, the use of pels, bytes,bits, dots, spots, etc., which in some context may be synonymous withsamples or pixels is also contemplated by this disclosure. In addition,throughout this disclosure the term “frame” should be understood toapply to conventional film frames, video frames, and/or digital framesand such frames should be understood to include the still images, whenshown in series, that make up a media asset.

For example, after identifying an object (e.g., a vehicle) appearing ina transmitted media asset, the media guidance application may input theobject (or a sampling associated with a location of the object) into adatabase listing objects (or samplings) appearing in media contentcorresponding to a transmitted media guidance datum. The database maydetermine whether or not any database entry matches the inputted object.If so, the media guidance application may verify that the transmittedmedia asset corresponds to the transmitted media guidance datum. If not,the media guidance application may not verify that the transmitted mediaasset corresponds to the transmitted media guidance datum.

FIGS. 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 1-2 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 100arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 104, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 106, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 102 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 108, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 110. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 110 may be provided asmedia guidance datum 112. Media guidance datum 112 may include, forexample, the program title, the program description, the time theprogram is provided (if applicable), the channel the program is on (ifapplicable), the program's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andInternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include media asset 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Media asset 122 may correspond to highlight region110. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement124 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

Options region 126 also includes icon 128. For example, in response to auser selecting icon 128, the media guidance application may verifywhether or not a currently generated for display media asset (e.g.,media asset 122) corresponds to a currently generated for display mediaguidance datum (e.g., media guidance datum 112). Alternatively oradditionally, in response to a user selecting icon 128, the mediaguidance application may verify whether or not a transmitted media assetcorresponds to transmitted media guidance datum whether or not theactual media asset is generated for display. For example, in response toreceiving a user selection of 128, the media guidance application mayverify all media guidance data or a subset of media guidance data (e.g.,the media guidance data on-screen, the media guidance data correspondingto media content that is currently available (e.g., on-demand,previously recorded, and currently broadcasted media assets), etc.).

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 200, television listings option 204 isselected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 200 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 208 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

Additionally, one or more of the listings may be associated with anon-screen icon (e.g., icon 218), the selection of which allows a user toreport incorrect or out-of-date media guidance data associated with thelisting. For example, in response to a user selection of icon 218, themedia guidance application may verify image portion 214 and/or textportion 216 of listing 208. For example, the media guidance applicationmay compare the media asset that is actually transmitted when listing208 is selected to media content that is known to be associated withimage portion 214 and/or text portion 216 to determine whether or notthe media guidance data for listing 208 is incorrect or out-of-date.

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Dec. 29, 2005,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4.User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306 and storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 302. I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (andspecifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 4, may be used to supplementstorage 308 or instead of storage 308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300. For example, display 312 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 312may be integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage308), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 308 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 310. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 300. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 300. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300.Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 310.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 300 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it is awireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412. Communications with the content source 416 and media guidancedata source 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 416 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 418), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/179,410, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining whether ornot a portion of data extracted from a media asset corresponds to aparticular media asset. It should be noted that process 500 or any stepthereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shownin FIGS. 3-4. For example, process 500 may be executed by controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by a media guidance applicationimplemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4) in order todetermine whether or not a portion of data extracted from a media assetcorresponds to a particular media asset. In addition, one or more stepsof process 500 may be incorporated into or combined with one or moresteps of any other process or embodiment (e.g., process 600 (FIG. 6)).

At step 502, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) transmits, from a first device (e.g., media content source416 or media guidance data source (FIG. 4)), a media asset (e.g., mediaasset 122 (FIG. 1)) for display on a second device (e.g., user equipmentdevice 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4)). For example, a media guidancedata source or the provider of an interactive guide may transmit one ormore television programs, movies, etc. At step 504, the media guidanceapplication (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) transmits, fromthe first device (e.g., media content source 416 or media guidance datasource (FIG. 4)), a media guidance datum (e.g., media guidance datum 112(FIG. 1)) for display on the second device. For example, the mediaguidance data source or the provider of an interactive guide maytransmit a title, summary, scheduling information, etc., about the mediaasset. In some embodiments, the media asset and the media guidance datummay be transmitted from different sources. For example, the media assetmay be transmitted from media content source 416 (FIG. 4), while themedia guidance datum is transmitted from media guidance data source 418(FIG. 4).

At step 506, the media guidance application receives (e.g., via userinput interface 310 (FIG. 3)) an indication (e.g., a user selection oficon 128 (FIG. 1)) that the media guidance datum generated for displayon the second device (e.g., user equipment device 402, 404, and/or 406(FIG. 4)) does not correspond to the media asset (e.g., media asset 122(FIG. 1)) generated for display on the second device. For example, themedia guidance application may receive a user input requesting that themedia guidance application verify the media guidance datum or a userinput that otherwise reports a problem. In another example, the mediaguidance application may receive indications continuously orperiodically as part of normal housekeeping procedures.

At step 508, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) determines, at the first device (e.g., media contentsource 416 (FIG. 4)), whether or not a portion of data (e.g., audioand/or video data for the media asset) extracted from the media asset(e.g., media asset 122 (FIG. 1)) generated for display on the seconddevice (e.g., user equipment device 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4))corresponds to media content corresponding to the media guidance datum(e.g., media guidance datum 112 (FIG. 1)) generated for display on thesecond device (e.g., user equipment device 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG.4)) in response to receiving the indication. For example, in response tothe indication, the media guidance application may request or extract aportion (e.g., a frame, a scene, etc.) of the media asset generated fordisplay on the screen device.

The media guidance application may (e.g., via control circuitry 304(FIG. 3)) compare the portion of data extracted from the media asset(e.g., media asset 122 (FIG. 1)) generated for display on the seconddevice (e.g., user equipment device 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4)) toother content to determine whether the portion corresponds to the mediacontent corresponding to the media guidance datum (e.g., media guidancedatum 112 (FIG. 1)) generated for display on the second device. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine whether theportion corresponds to the media content by cross-referencing theportion (e.g., a scene of the media asset generated for display on thesecond device) with a database (e.g., located at storage 308 (FIG. 3)and/or any location accessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4))of portions (e.g., scenes) of the media content to determine whether theportion matches one of the portions. In another example, the mediaguidance application may determine whether the portion corresponds tothe media content by identifying an object (e.g., a name, character,vehicle, etc.) in the portion and comparing the object to objectscorresponding to the media content.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) transmit an updated media guidance datumfor display on the second device in response to determining that theportion does not correspond to the media content. For example, inresponse to determining that the portion does not correspond to themedia content corresponding to the media guidance datum generated fordisplay on the second device, the media guidance application maytransmit new media guidance data that does correspond to the portion.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) request an additional portion of dataextracted from the media asset generated for display on the seconddevice in response to (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3))determining that the portion does not correspond to the media content.For example, in response to determining that the portion does notcorrespond to the media content corresponding to the media guidancedatum generated for display on the second device, the media guidanceapplication may extract additional portions and determine whether or notthose portions correspond to the media content corresponding to themedia guidance datum generated for display on the second device.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) transmit an award to a user in responseto (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) determining that theportion does not correspond to the media content. For example, if themedia guidance data received from a first source is incorrect, the mediaguidance application may reward the user that reported the problem.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) transmit a verification message inresponse to determining that the portion does correspond to the mediacontent. For example, in response to determining that the portion doescorrespond to the media content corresponding to the media guidancedatum generated for display on the second device, the media guidanceapplication may notify the user that the media guidance datum iscorrect.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 5 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 5 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 5.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining whether ornot to transmit a verification. It should be noted that process 600 orany step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 3-4. For example, process 600 may be executed bycontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by a media guidanceapplication implemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4)in order to determine whether or not to transmit a verification. Inaddition, one or more steps of process 600 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of any other process or embodiment(e.g., process 500 (FIG. 5)).

At step 602, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) receives a request for verification of media guidancedata. For example, the media guidance application may have received auser selection (e.g., via user input interface 310 (FIG. 3)) of icon 128(FIG. 1). In another example, the media guidance application may have(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) automatically determined toverify the media guidance data (e.g., as part of a housekeepingroutine).

At step 604, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) extracts audio and video data from the media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) select, or may issue instructions to the user device toselect, a portion of the media asset that is currently being transmittedto and/or played back on the user device (e.g., user equipment device402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4)). For example, the media guidanceapplication may select one or more frames that where broadcasted whenthe request was received.

Alternatively, the media guidance application may select portions of themedia asset from various points in the run-time of the media asset. Forexample, by selecting portions from various portions of the media asset,the media guidance application may avoid a situation in which a singleportion of the media asset features different content (e.g., differentobjects) than other portions. For example, if the media guidanceapplication selects many portions, the media guidance application may(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) analyze each of the portions.If one portion is found not to correspond with the others (e.g., theportion corresponds to a commercial transmitted with the media asset),the media guidance application may rely on objects found in the otherportions.

Accordingly, it should be noted that in some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3))extract one or more portions of audio and video data from various pointsin the media asset. Likewise, the media guidance application may analyzemultiple portions and/or objects extracted from the media asset. In someembodiments, the extraction of multiple portions and/or objects may bedone in a series of iterations. While in some embodiments, theextraction of multiple portions and/or objects may be donesimultaneously.

At step 606, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) transmits the extracted data to a server. For example, themedia guidance application may (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG.3)) issue instructions to a user device requesting that extracted databe sent to a remote device. For example, in some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may control and/or issue instructions (e.g., viaI/O path 302 (FIG. 3)) to multiple devices. Accordingly, the mediaguidance application may divide the analysis of a portion of extractedcontent between the multiple devices. For example, while the user devicemay select and/or extract a portion of the media asset, a remote device(e.g., a head-end server) may perform the analysis on the extractedportion.

At step 608, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) determines whether the extracted data corresponds to mediacontent stored in a database (e.g., located at storage 308 (FIG. 3)and/or any location accessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4)).For example, as explained above, the media guidance application may(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) compare the portion of dataextracted from the media asset (e.g., media asset 122 (FIG. 1)) to othercontent to (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) determine whetherthe extracted data corresponds to the media content corresponding to themedia guidance data (e.g., media guidance datum 112 (FIG. 1)). Forexample, the media guidance application may (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) determine whether the portion corresponds to the mediacontent by cross-referencing the portion (e.g., a screenshot of themedia asset) with a database (e.g., located at storage 308 (FIG. 3)and/or any location accessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4))of portions (e.g., screenshots) of the media content to determinewhether the portion matches one of the portions.

If the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG.3)) determines that the extracted data corresponds to media contentstored in the database, the media guidance application may transmit theverification at step 610. For example, the media guidance applicationmay (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) transmit a short message(e.g., for display on display 312 (FIG. 3)) declaring the media guidancedata as verified or otherwise graphically accentuate verified mediaguidance data (e.g., presenting verified media guidance data in adifferent color). If the media guidance application determines that theextracted data does not correspond to media content stored in thedatabase, the media guidance application proceeds to step 612.

At step 608, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) determines whether an object in the extracted datacorresponds to an object in the media content associated with the mediaguidance data. For example, as explained above, the media guidanceapplication may (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) compare anobject from the transmitted media asset (e.g., media asset 122 (FIG. 1))to other objects that are found in media content known to be associatedwith the media guidance data to determine whether the transmitted mediaasset corresponds to the transmitted media guidance data (e.g., mediaguidance datum 112 (FIG. 1)). For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine whether an object corresponds to the mediacontent by cross-referencing the object (e.g., a character in the mediaasset) with a database (e.g., located at storage 308 (FIG. 3) and/or anylocation accessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4)) of objects(e.g., characters) associated with media content known to correspond tothe media guidance data.

If the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG.3)) determines that the object corresponds an object in the mediacontent known to be associated with the media guidance data, the mediaguidance application may transmit the verification at step 614. Forexample, the media guidance application may transmit a short messagedeclaring the media guidance data as verified or otherwise graphicallyaccentuate verified media guidance data (e.g., presenting verified mediaguidance data in a different color). If the media guidance application(e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3)) determines that the objectdoes not correspond to an object in the media content known to beassociated with media guidance data, the media guidance applicationproceeds to step 616.

At step 616, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) retrieves (e.g., from media guidance data source 418and/or any location accessible via communications network 414 (FIG. 4))updated media guidance data. For example, in response to determiningthat the transmitted media guidance data is incorrect, the mediaguidance application may (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3))search for different media guidance data. In some embodiments, searchingfor different media guidance data may involve finding different sourcesof media guidance data. For example, in response to determining that themedia guidance data from a first source (e.g., media guidance datasource 418 (FIG. 4)) is incorrect, the media guidance application maysearch for media guidance data from a second source (e.g., a differentsource of media guidance data accessible via communications network 414(FIG. 4)).

At step 618, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry304 (FIG. 3)) transmits the updated media guidance data. For example,the media guidance application may populate a display screen (e.g.,display 100 (FIG. 1)) with the updated media guidance data. Additionallyor alternatively, the media guidance application may notify the userthat the media guidance data has been updated. For example, the mediaguidance application may generate for display a pop-up messageindicating which media guidance datum has been change.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 6 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 6 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-4 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 6.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done inparallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may beperformed in real time. It should also be noted, the systems and/ormethods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of verifying media guidance data, themethod comprising: transmitting, from a first device, a media asset fordisplay on a second device; transmitting, from the first device, a mediaguidance datum for display on the second device; receiving an indicationfrom a user that the media guidance datum generated for display on thesecond device does not correspond to the media asset generated fordisplay on the second device; and in response to receiving theindication: searching for a subset of a plurality of objects associatedwith the media guidance datum; processing a portion of data extractedfrom the media asset generated for display on the second device toselect an object present in the media asset; comparing the selectedobject to the subset of the plurality of objects; in response todetermining, at the first device, that the selected object matches atleast one of the objects in the subset, verifying that the media assetcorresponds to the media guidance datum; and in response to verifyingthat the media asset corresponds to the media guidance datum,transmitting an instruction to the second device to visually distinguishthe verified media guidance datum from other media guidance data.
 2. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising searching the portion with adatabase of portions of the media content to determine whether theportion matches one of the portions.
 3. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising transmitting an updated media guidance datum for display onthe second device in response to determining that the selected objectfails to match at least one of the objects in the subset.
 4. The methodof claim 1, further comprising requesting an additional portion of dataextracted from the media asset generated for display on the seconddevice in response to determining that the selected object fails tomatch at least one of the objects in the subset.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein the indication is transmitted in response to a user selectingan icon generated for display on the first device.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the indication is transmitted in response to a userselecting an icon generated for display on a third device.
 7. The methodof claim 1, wherein the portion includes audio and video data for themedia asset.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the media guidance datumindicates a title, schedule, or description of the media asset.
 9. Asystem for verifying media guidance data, the system comprising: storagecircuitry configured to store a media asset for display on a seconddevice; and control circuitry configured to: transmit the media assetfor display on a second device; transmit a media guidance datum fordisplay on the second device; receive an indication from a user that themedia guidance datum generated for display on the second device does notcorrespond to the media asset generated for display on the seconddevice; and in response to receiving the indication: search for a subsetof a plurality of objects associated with the media guidance datum;process a portion of data extracted from the media asset generated fordisplay on the second device to select an object present in the mediaasset; compare the selected object to the subset of the plurality ofobjects; in response to determining that the selected object matches atleast one of the objects in the subset, verify that the media assetcorresponds to the media guidance datum; and in response to verifyingthat the media asset corresponds to the media guidance datum, transmitan instruction to the second device to visually distinguish the verifiedmedia guidance datum from other media guidance data.
 10. The system ofclaim 9, wherein the control circuitry configured search the portionwith a database of portions of the media content to determine whetherthe portion matches one of the portions.
 11. The system of claim 9,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to transmit anupdated media guidance datum for display on the second device inresponse to determining that the selected object fails to match at leastone of the objects in the subset.
 12. The system of claim 9, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to request an additional portionof data extracted from the media asset generated for display on thesecond device in response to determining that the selected object failsto match at least one of the objects in the subset.
 13. The system ofclaim 9, wherein the indication is transmitted in response to a userselecting an icon generated for display on the first device.
 14. Thesystem of claim 9, wherein the indication is transmitted in response toa user selecting an icon generated for display on a third device. 15.The system of claim 9, wherein the portion includes audio and video datafor the media asset.
 16. The system of claim 9, wherein the mediaguidance datum indicates a title, schedule, or description of the mediaasset.